New 'personhood' initiative proposed in Miss.

JACKSON — Abortion opponents are pushing for another Mississippi ballot initiative that would define life as beginning at conception.

It’s similar to a proposal that 58 percent of voters rejected in November 2011.

Personhood Mississippi filed paperwork Tuesday with the secretary of state’s office, saying it intends to launch a new initiative.

After a ballot title and summary are prepared by the attorney general’s office, the initiative’s sponsors would have one year to gather at least 107,216 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. That means the earliest likely date for a vote would be in November 2015, coinciding with the next governor’s election.

A group called Parents Against Personhood says defining life as beginning at fertilization could block in vitro fertilization by granting legal rights to embryos.